Health insurance enrollments increase in Texas, nationwide

Source: Houston ChronicleDec.儲存 11--Texans make up less than 4 percent of the nearly 365,000 people who selected health insurance plans during the first two months of enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, according to an updated federal report released Wednesday.Between Oct. 1 and Nov. 30, 14,038 Texans picked health plans in the health insurance marketplace. Almost 80 percent of those selections -- 11, 047 -- were made in November.Since the marketplace's Oct. 1 opening, more than 118,500 Texas residents have completed applications, which would cover nearly 245,000 people and their families, according to the report. Of these, almost 177,500 are eligible to enroll in a marketplace plan, with about 62,300 applicants qualifying for financial assistance.The report does not indicate how many Houston-area residents have enrolled in or applied for coverage at healthcare.gov. Demographics, including age groups and income levels, also were not revealed in the report.The website is where residents of 36 states, including Texas, have been directed to buy coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Website flaws prevented millions of people from using healthcare.gov for much of the first two months of enrollment. The goal of the system has been to enroll 7 million people by March.Spokesmen for the agency overseeing the insurance marketplace said improvements to healthcare.gov have increased insurance plan selections nationwide, up from about 106,000 reported in October to 259,000 in November. They said they expect numbers to continue increasing as more people use the website, phone call centers or make appointments to enroll in coverage."These numbers that we are releasing today are encouraging," said spokeswoman Julie Bataille. "We expect these numbers to continue to grow over time. They show tremendous demand for this product."After its failed launch, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took a beating over problems with the website, with Rep迷你倉blican members of Congress calling for her resignation. The Obama administration spent last month improving the site to ensure that it could handle an estimated 800,000 visitors per day by the end of November.Despite the marketplace's troubled rollout, Michael Hash, director of the Department of Health and Human Service's Office of Health Reform, said the administration has not revised its enrollment projections."We think we're on track," he said of the 7 million signup estimate. "The bulk of enrollments will occur near the end of open enrollment."The report includes plans selected, but not necessarily completed enrollments.The number of faulty plan applications that prevented insurers from completing enrollments is unclear. Last week, Bataille said website problems created errors with 1 of every 10 plan applications sent to insurers. In October, problems occurred with 1 of 4 files sent to insurers.During a Tuesday conference call with reporters, Bataille said her agency and insurers have been reconciling applications to ensure accuracy and complete enrollments. It also is working with states to confirm Medicaid eligibility, she said.Nationwide, almost 365,000 Americans have selected coverage between Oct. 1 and Nov. 30. Nearly 1.2 million enrollment applications have been completed, covering more than 2.2 million people, according to the report.About 62 percent of the signups come from the 14-state based marketplaces. They had about 227,500 people sign up, compared with the estimated 137,200 consumers who bought insurance through the federal marketplace.Hash said about 39 million unique visitors had used healthcare.gov, and an estimated 5 million people had phoned call centers to find out about insurance coverage.Those who want coverage to start on Jan. 1 must buy plans by Dec. 23. Otherwise, enrollment ends March 31.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Houston Chronicle Visit the Houston Chronicle at .chron.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage